It's Snowing On Pathar
by MHZn'EARTH
Summary: A girl named Summer goes out to confront her past. Teaming up with a hard-boiled Captain and Ahsoka Tano, Summer ventures forward only to find herself in a world of secrets, greed, and corruption. Danger lies in wait for her at every turn. Enemies abound. Friends are few. Who is Summer...and what is her fate?
1. An Introduction

**It's Snowing on Pathar**

* * *

_**Prologue: An Introduction**_

_**The** swing is aimed perfectly but somehow she dodges it._ Summer's lightsaber buzzes through empty air leaving her body defenseless. Ahsoka takes the chance, counterattacking with a powerful kick. Her boot slams right under Summer's chest, digging into her stomach. Summer stumbles backwards and falls hard onto her bottom. She grabs her stomach and moans before throwing up her half-digested lunch. Lumpy brown liquid gushes out onto her robes and spills down onto the training mats. A collective cry of disgust rises up all around her. The other Jedi younglings cover their mouths and point at the spreading puddle of vomit. Laughs and snickers are all Summer hears. Master Yii clears his throat, silencing the children. He waves his hand and server droids rush in from the sides of the room, cleaning supplies in tow. Master Yii walks over to nine-year-old Summer and looks down sympathetically. She looks up into his comforting brown eyes. He nods and offers her a helping hand. Face burning with embarrassment, Summer accepts his hand and pulls herself up. As she stands throw-up runs down her robe. More snickers and groans go around the class.

"Enough!" Master Yii barks. The class once again falls silent. The only sound is the swish, swish, swishing of the cleaner droids' brushes. "Miss Summer fought well…better than most of you ever have. As peers you should be encouraging one another, picking one another up. Not laughing when another falls and leaving them behind. The way of the Jedi is not to tear down your neighbor but to support your neighbor. Do NOT forget that." Master Yii scans the class room making sure his steely glare passes over each one of his students. The young Jedi lower their heads.

"Yes, Master Yii." They say collectively.

Master Yii now turns to ten year-old Ahsoka. She stands watching the throw-up drip off Summer's uniform. Yii lowers his voice so that only Ahsoka and Summer can hear. "Ahsoka, the kick was uncalled for." Ahsoka opens her mouth to protest but Yii cuts her off. "That you kicked your opponent in a sparring session exclusive to lightsaber combat is excusable. Your motive is not. You knew Summer would throw up didn't you?" Ahsoka nods her head meekly. Master Yii sighs. "Ever since sparring sessions started this year the two of you have been at each other. What is it with you? If you had some type of disagreement between each other then please, tell me about it. I can't be having you fighting like this. And it's not just my class. Other masters say that they're having problems keeping you guys in order. Please, if there is something you need to tell me, then do tell." Though both girls remain quiet their hostile stares fire off round after round of silent insults. Neither one says a word. Master Yii sighs again. "Very well then. I don't want any more trouble out of you two. Understand?" Nods all around. "Good. Ahsoka, back with the rest of the class. Summer, go up to your room to wash up and change. "

"Yes, Master Yii." They both say. Master Yii follows Ahsoka off the mat. As Summer leaves, she looks back to catch Ahsoka's knowing smirk. Summer shakes her head and turns away.

Though Summer shares her room with five other trainee girls the room is empty when she walks in. All the other girls are scattered throughout the temple, training and learning about the 'Way of the Jedi'. "Forget the way of the Jedi." Summer mutters as she steps into the bathroom. As she sheds her sticky robes she imagines rubbing them in Ahsoka's face. Quiet, introvert Summer vs. impulsive extrovert Ahsoka. They first met when Summer was only six. Ahsoka had started calling her Red Eyes in front of the whole class and ever since then they'd been rivals. Both girls excelled at everything, but Ahsoka always excelled better. When sparring sessions had started ,Summer had thought she'd finally found a way to take revenge. She was wrong. Ahsoka was an agile fighter that outmaneuvered her opponents. She would dodge attacks and mess up peoples' defenses before delivering the winning strike. Summer relied on quick powerful attacks that overwhelmed people before they could recover. Ahsoka wins every time. As usual, Summer is second in her class…second to Ahsoka of course.

Summer looks into the mirror. A ten year old Chiss youngling with long black hair and blue skin looks back. She runs her hand across a thin grey streak that stretches across her face. It's a scar, or a birthmark. She doesn't really know which. The mark travels near one of her glowing eyes before jutting down towards the bottom of her jaw. When she was younger she would cry after being called 'Red Eyes' at in class, but now, of course, she knows that all Chiss have red eyes. It's natural…just like Ahsoka has those weird head tails. Summer laughs to herself. Back when Ahsoka was younger the head tails looked too big on her head and Summer would joke about them. But that was three years ago and Ahsoka's head has done a little catching up.

After showering, Summer changes to another one of her plain brown robes and heads down to one of the temples many courtyards. She has a class in intergalactic history but that's not until later in the day. There's a two hour break that most trainees use to study or brush up on their combat. Summer uses the time to talk to her favorite person in the Jedi Temple.

Summer finds twenty-five year old Elicity sitting cross-legged and alone under a young tree. The tree is bursting with colors. Dark brown wood, light green leaves, and little yellow flower with an orange center. Elicity is bent over a data tablet tapping away at its screen. She looks up and smiles as Summer approaches. "Hey, Autumn!" Her cheerful greeting floats across the courtyard. As usual, it makes Summer smile. Summer rushes over towards the tree and settles down next to Elicity. She leans her head against her shoulder. A cool breeze causes tiny yellow petals to drift down from the tree. "What's up?" Elicity asks casually. Summer shrugs but doesn't say anything. Elicity sighs and puts down her data tablet. "Look at me Summer." She says softly. Summer turns and looks into Elicity's golden eyes. "Is Ahsoka on the loose again?"

Summer nods. "She kicked me in the stomach during a sparring match. I threw up in front of the whole class."

Elicity is silent for a while. She looks like she's thinking. "Let me guess," she says. "You wanted to plant her face in the throw-up." Summer nods and they both break into smiles as they imagine Ahsoka flailing around in gooey vomit. It would have made a great show for the rest of the class. Elicity laughs and looks back at Summer. "Well I'm glad you didn't. That would've been the WRONG thing to do. Yea, I admit it would be pretty awesome, but that still doesn't make it right."

"How do you know?"

"Well first of all, revenge is never an answer to anything. Secondly, it's just bad to rub someone's face in your throw up."

Ahsoka's flailing image flashes into Summer's mind again and she giggles. Elicity places an arm around Summer and looks up into the blue sky. "Have I ever told you about my master?" she asks.

Summer shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

Elicity raises an eyebrow. "Why? Well because I want to make sure I don't tell you the same thing twice, Silly!"

Summer crosses her arms comically. "I'm not silly!"

"Yes you are! You're the silliest of them all. Now listen up Summer. I have to tell you about my master. Well, actually I want to tell you about something he said."

Summer hugs her legs close to her and settles in for preparation of a story.

"Thirteen years ago, when I was a twelve, I asked my master how we know when we're making choices that follow the right path of the force. I expected some long complicated answer but instead he told me that the force will simply let us know if we've made a good choice or a bad choice. He said that the force usually tells us through visions or gut feelings, but if we've made a really important choice it contacts us through the weather. Harsh rain and storms are signs of bad choices, but sunshine and soft breezes are for good choices. It's that simple."

"Every time it rains, I've made a bad choice?" Summer asks. Elicity shakes her head.

"No, the weather isn't always telling you something. Sometimes it rains just because it rains. When it rains, take the time to listen to the drops. If you don't hear them speaking to you, then it's just normal rain."

Summer nods her head as she takes in the new information. 'The force can communicate to us through the weather? Never heard it put that way before.' She thinks. Then a thought hits her.

"What about the snow?" Summer asks. "If rain is bad, and a breeze is good, then what is snow?"

Elicity replies. "Snow is special. It holds two meanings. It's neutral. Snow shows us that whatever choices we have made were a mix of both good and bad."

"Cool. Have you ever gotten snow?"

Elicity shakes her head. "My master told that snow is rare. Usually someone's choices have more bad than good, or more good than bad. In the end they get rain or shine. When the force is speaking to someone, it almost never snows…


	2. A Situation

**Chapter One: A Situation**

**Seven Years Later…**

_ On the far edges of the Inner Rim is a tiny, insignificant planet called Pathar. During the ancient conflict between the Jedi and Sith the planet was colonized by war refugees. The colony quickly died from the toxic rain clouds that blew in from the planet's poisonous oceans. Now little Pathar's only inhabitants are from three mining facilities and one large, Republic, defense outpost. The outpost is known as Almega Base._

_ Stationed at Almega is Padawan Summer and her master, Elicity K'Ull. Under the two Jedi's command are a large force of clone troopers lead by Colonel Viper…_

_"Come to me"_ _someone whispers_. The soft voice wakens Summer from a deep sleep. Her eyes flutter open and she finds herself lying on a dirt covered floor. Surrounding her are four wooden walls, all in disrepair and toppling over from dry-rot. Clinging to one of the walls is a large chunk of splintered wood. Summer assumes that it's the door. Spattered across the walls are red streaks of dried blood. Bits of scattered bone litter the ground. Summer takes in a breath and the sharp stench of feces fills her nose. She gags. Summer makes note not to breathe through her nose. She rolls over and props herself up with her elbows to get a better look at the door. Dim beams of light filter into the room from around the door's edges outlining it in gold. The door creaks on a pair of iron hinges.

_"Come to me"_ a voice whispers. The voice is somehow soft and powerful at the same time. Summer slowly climbs to her feet. As she stands her head swims and her vision tilts dramatically to one side. She staggers to the side before crashing into the one of the walls. Brittle wood snaps and buckles under her weight. Summer and the wall both go crashing down. They hit the floor in a heap. Summer curses under her breath as she picks herself up off the ground. She looks at her hands to find them dripping with blood. Countless splinters stick up from her palms. She begins to rip out the wooden needles but only succeeds in breaking off the ends. It's a hopeless job. She stops and looks up. She's at the back of another room. This one is larger than the first and is made entirely of large grey boulders. The walls are circular and the ceiling is slightly domed towards the middle. The room is completely dark except for a single lantern hanging from the ceiling. At the opposite side of the lantern is a doorway. The metal door hangs slightly ajar. Summer turns around to where the wooden shack should be only to find a pile of dust.

"What the hell?" she murmurs. "The shack, it disappeared…"

_"Come to me."_ The voice has returned. It comes from the direction of the lantern. Summer spins to face the voice. Nothing. Except for the lantern, the room is empty. _"Come to me"_ repeats the voice. Inside the lantern is a single flame. The orange head of fire is vaguely shaped like a hand. As the flame flickers the hand beckons. It wants Summer to come closer. Summer takes several tentative steps forward. The hand beckons still. She moves even closer. _"Come to me." _Summer walks towards the lantern until it hangs directly in front of her. The flame's red glow is warm on her face. She stares into the light watching as it twists and turns inside its little cage. It almost looks as if the flame were trying to escape. A sudden urge to take the lantern rises up in her and she doesn't resist. Summer reaches out to take chain holding the lantern to the ceiling. Suddenly room's metal door swings open. The door breaks free of its hinges and flies towards Summer. Jedi instincts take over and she ducks low. The door sweeps overhead, smashing the lantern. Bang! The door crashes into the back wall and clatters to the floor. Summer stands back up, unharmed. She looks up at where the door used to be. There is now a stone corridor lined with lanterns. At the end of the corridor is a hooded figure covered in dark robes. An icy wind sweeps through the doorway. Summer's hair drifts backwards in the cold breeze. She shivers.

"_Come to me."_ The voice is now coming from the figure at the end of the hall. Something small has changed in the voice, putting Summer on edge. Another voice in Summer's head screams for her to run; to get away from this wicked place. Another voice tells her to stay. Summer shakes her head. She has to get out of here. Something evil is at play. The rooms temperature is quickly dropping and Summer's breath is coming out in white clouds. It's freezing cold. That's when Summer notices what she's wearing. A thin robe stained with blood from her hands. She hugs the robe around her tighter as she starts to shiver.

"I want to leave" she says through chattering teeth.

_"Come to me."_ The voice is growing more persistent.

Summer tries to back away from the doorway but can't move. She's paralyzed.

_"Come to me" _the voice's calls. It sounds different now. It has dropped several octaves and is gravely and rough. Long gone are the quiet whispers of before.

Suddenly Summer is moving. She looks down in horror as her legs move on their own. She is walking towards the figure involuntarily. Her body is no longer hers but someone else's. This voice is controlling her. Pulling her closer to the hooded figure. Summer wants to lift her hands but is powerless. She feels weak. Scared and frightened.

"Help!" she screams, but nobody answers.

_"No one will help you now Aveen." _

Summer quickly finds that she is out in the middle of the corridor. Walls are speeding by in a blur. Her body is in a full sprint towards the shadowed figure. She can't stop. Summer once again tries to scream but her voice is immediately silenced by an invisible force. The figure at the end of the hall is now closer than ever. Summer can see the bloodied and bare feet of a child peeking out from under the robe. The figure's chest is rising and falling with each breath. The dark figure raises a hand and Summer skids to a stop less than a meter away. Summer shakes uncontrollably while an icy feeling of dread fills her gut. The shadowed figure is moving, raising both hands up to pull down its hood. Summer strains against whatever controls her but can't break free. In one sweeping motion the figure throws back the hood, revealing a distorted face. One half is the face is a creatures half decayed skull with a single glowing, red eye. Bloody chunks of skin hang loose, revealing the rotten patches of muscle and bone that make up the face. Summer immediately wants to puke. Her body bends over and she dry heaves over the floor. Stomach still churning Summer automatically snaps back to standing position. As soon as she is upright her eyes are drawn to the other half of the monster's face. She lets out a cry of fear. Staring back at her is herself. The imposter's face is a much younger version of Summer but the resemblance is unmistakable. The imposter even has the same grey scar that runs across her face. Summer grows lightheaded. Dizzy. She can't take anymore. Just before Summer blacks out she catches one last glimpse of the girl's scar. It is glowing bright red in the darkness.

_"Look into your past Summer. He prophesied your destiny." _

That's the last thing Summer hears before she loses consciousness.

**.:Summer:. **

Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt! Summer wakes up to a low buzzing sound coming from across her room. Her eyes slide open. She's super tired. Extremely tired. Doesn't want to get up. Hoping that the buzzing will stop on its own, she lets her eyes slide close. Just a little more sleep. Bzzzzt! Summer rolls over in her bed and tries to ignore the sound; the buzzing continues. Why won't it stop? Bzzzzt! She gives up on going back to sleep. What _is_ that buzzing sound? Still sleepy, Summer sits up. She opens her eyes and looks around. Her eyes are greeted by her plain bedroom. It's not much to look at. It is an octagonal room with evenly spaced forty-five degree angles. Each side of the octagon is 3 ½ yards long. At the back of the room, or the 'bottom' of the octagon, is Summer's bed. The first two sides that connect here are both used to store gear. The thin lines etched into the silver walls are actually voice activated slide-out drawers. Of these two walls, the left one holds what few clothes and uniforms Summer owns; the right one carries everything from combat armor to grapple guns. The next two walls on either side of the octagon are both large windows covered by shades. Next are two more walls,; both are plain and empty. Most notable are the desk and chair that Summer shoved in the corner several years back. Lastly, at the top of the octagon, is a metal blast door that leads outside.

Summer squints her eyes at a slanted beam of sunlight pouring through one of the windows. The light is shining right on her face, practically blinding her. Outside she can hear the sounds of Almega's daily wake up routines. The shouts of Captain Grey, one of Colonel Viper's aids, leading soldiers in morning exercises; the clanking of AT-RT's returning from night-time patrols; the drone of drop-ships carrying in new supplies, and the 'pop, pop' of gun-fire from the shooting range. The base has awaken without her.

Bzzzzt! That buzzing sound again! Summer's sleepy mind begins to kick into gear. As she comes to, facts begin to run through her head. _'My name is Summer Tio Alee. I'm sixteen years old and 1.8 meters tall. My master is Elicity K'Ull. I'm at Almega base at Pathar. I…' _Bzzzzt! '_What IS that sound?!' _Then she remembers. Whenever she sleeps late Corporal Cutter is supposed to give her a 'wake-up call'. Bzzzzt! The call has arrived. Summer can hear Cutter's exasperated sigh as he presses the door buzzer for the tenth time.

"I'm up!" Summer calls out.

"Took long enough." Cutter growls. The clone trooper's departing footsteps fade away from Summer's doorstep. Summer yawns and stretches her taught muscles. It's uncharacteristic of her to sleep in this late. Usually she is up at the crack of dawn with Captain Grey and Master Elicity. This is the fifth time in a row that she has had to be awaken by Cutter. This is also the fifth time in a row that she has had _the dream_ with _the voice_. Summer stumbles out of bed and crosses over to her desk. A basin of water and a towel are waiting for her. Elicity probably put them there while Summer was still sleeping. As Summer washes up her mind goes back to the strange dreams…or nightmares, whatever they are. She started having them recently. Only within the beginning of the week. What do they mean? What is the two faced monster-girl creature? What's the importance of the lantern? Summer finishes washing and goes to the wall to find something to wear. Questions continue to whirl around her mind. Why does the dream start in a shack? Who prophesied her destiny? What does, "_Look to you past"_ mean?

Summer opens her drawers. She gets dressed in a brown long-sleeved training shirt and a pair of black pants. She grabs a pair of light-weight training shoes and slips them on. Summer remembers when she first tried to decipher the dreams on her own. She'd spent almost all day meditating and had only ended up more confused. Each question had led to another, which had led to another, which had led to another…. Everything had gone in circles. It was like a big, endless search for truth. Only one person on Almega base could ever give Summer the answer to something like this. Master Elicity K'Ull.

Summer grabs her belt holding her lightsabers and heads towards the door. She stops as something catches her eye. A full length mirror sitting by the door. Elicity had given it to her when Summer was still young. She'd told Summer to look into the mirror every day for self-confidence. '_Remind yourself who you are." _Elicity had said. Summer looks into the mirror now. She sees an athletic sixteen year-old girl who's too skinny and has a grey scar running down her face. Summer pulls up her black hair and puts it into a ponytail. She purposely allows some of her hair to hang down in her face. It effectively covers up the scar. _'That looks better'. _Summer thinks. _'Much better.'_ Summer turns and rushes out the door to find Elicity.

Later…

It is a clear autumn day and the forest surrounding Almega is a quilt of fiery reds and dull browns. Summer and Elicity are walking side by side on a trail winding through the trees. Almega is far behind them, in the distance.

"Trust me Summer." Elicity is saying. "The dreams don't mean anything. Maybe you were upset about something and it manifested in the form of a nightmare. We've all had nightmares once and while."

Summer is already shaking her head in disagreement. "Nobody has four nightmares in a row Elicity. These are the same dream night after night. Each time I have them I hear this voice talking to me. It's telling me all this stuff, like, to look into my past and mentions a prophecy. I feel like the dreams are trying to remind me about something but I just can't remember. It's frustrating!"

Elicity does what she always does when she thinks and glances up at the forest canopy above. Between the leaves she can catch glimpses of the sun and patches of the blue autumn sky. Summer used to look up too when she was thinking but quickly realized she was only doing it because Elicity did it. That habit had lasted only few weeks.

"You said that the dreams tell you to look into your past." Elicity says. "Have you tried to?"

"Well, yea, I have. But every time I try, I can't find anything. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't remember anything from before the Jedi temple. I was five, almost six, years old back then. Everything from before the temple is, like, completely erased"

A concerned look comes over Elicity. Something is bothering her. She looks troubled. "Are you saying that someone stole your memory?"

"No, no, no. Nothing like that. Erased isn't the right word to use. I meant to say _gone_. Everything from before the temple is just gone.

"Hmm." Is all Elicity replies. No advice. No answers. Just 'Hmmm'. She doesn't say anything else and the conversation ends.

"Did I say something wrong" Summer asks. Her master just shakes her head and keeps walking. Summer follows. Elicity begins to walk faster and Summer speeds up. Elicity speeds up. Summer smiles and accepts the challenge. She starts up in a jog only to be passed by a running Elicity. Game on. Quickly the padawan and her master find themselves sprinting through the forest, leaping foot holes and fallen trees. The sounds and sights of the forest fly by in a blur. They duck under low branches and dodge rocks. Neither one slows. They only go faster. Elicity pulls ahead and Summer struggles to stay up. She focuses her mind and concentrates on speed.

"Growing tired?" Elicity calls back playfully.

"Not a chance." Summer manages through laboring breaths. Her own heavy breathing is all she hears. A single breath in. A single breath out. '_I got to beat her this time!' _she thinks. Inhale. '_I can't lose!' _Exhale. '_Faster Summer, faster!'_ Summer leans into her final burst of speed. She speeds through a long stretch of woods before bursting out into a grassy clearing. Not fast enough. Elicity is already waiting for her. She's smiling. Summer slides to a stop and rests her arms over her head.

"Good run?" Elicity asks. Summer nods. She's too out of breath to talk. "Take some time to recover. I'll wait." Summer walks around a bit before settling down. She lays back on the ground, feels the cool grass, and lets the sun wash over her. Elicity sits down next to her and they sit in silence. A soft breeze blows through Summer's hair as she rests. For a brief moment Summer forgets the dreams. Thoughts of having the perfect day drift through her mind. No problems and no troubles. Just her and her master. Summer is about to kick off her shoes and close her eyes when Elicity stops her. "You can sleep later. I have something to show you first. It's about the dreams." She motions back towards the forest. "Follow me."

A while later, Summer and Elicity are standing around a large boulder in the middle of the forest. Elicity closes her eyes then uses the force to lift the boulder away. As the boulder moves, a large hole is revealed on the forest's muddy floor. The inside of the 'hole' is coated with metal. It's a tunnel.

"I wish I could go with you" Elicity says. "but I have to take care of some things back at Almega."

Summer looks at her master and then back at the tunnel. "You want me to climb down there…alone?"

"Well, yes. There's something you need to see. I think it will help you. Once you reach the bottom of the tunnel make sure to look into the water. It may take some time, but the water will speak to you. Patience will be necessary." She pauses. "You're not scared, are you?"

Summer is taken back by the question. She stutters out an answer. "Uhm…uh…no. No, not at all! I mean, there's talking water at the bottom. I'm all for that."

Elicity sighs, relieved. "Good. When you're done, come back to Almega. I'll be in the HQ center."

Summer nods. "Yes master."

"Remember to cover the tunnel on your way out." Then, without another word, Elicity leaves Summer alone in the forest.

**.:Elicity** **K'Ull:. **

(Twenty minutes later)

Elicity bursts into the Head Quarters of Almega base. Startled clone troopers look up from their work. Elicity ignores their stares and b-lines straight to the nearest turbo-lift. As she walks, she talks through the com-link strapped to her wrist. "Major Ex, this is Commander K'Ull. Come in."

Major Ex, the Colonel's assistant and Captain Grey's commander, responds. "This is Major Ex. Go ahead Commander K'Ull."

Elicity reaches the turbo-lift and steps in. She waves her hand over the controls activating a switch through the force. The lift shoots up towards a private level built only for Elicity. "Major, I need you to get someone to the hanger and have the fastest hyperdrive equipped ship prepped for take-off."

"Yes, Commander." A short pause. "Is everything okay ma'am?" The turbo-lift reaches its destination. The doors open and Elicity steps out into a small room without windows.

"Let's hope so..." A dark feeling hovers over her. Is everything _really _alright? No, everything is not. "…and Major, if you see Summer, tell her to prepare to leave. Tell her we're going on a trip."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Elicity switches off her com-link. The room she is in is almost completely dark. The only light comes from a pair of glowing lamps. In the center of the room is a large computer console covered in wires. It's a holo-projector. Elicity goes to the projector taps several buttons and steps back. The console comes to life. It projects a massive image of the Republic and Jedi symbols.

"State priority." A synthetic voice says.

"This is General Elicity K'Ull of TF08, Pathar. Priority One call to the Jedi Counsel."

"Affirmative. Connecting to the Council Chamber."

After a short wait, the holographic symbols are replaced by a large hovering image of the Jedi Council chamber. Only three masters are there. Yoda, Mace Windu and Obi Wan. Elicity bows quickly.

"It has been a long time since we've had any word from you General K'Ull." Master Windu says. "State your business. We hope that you bring good news." It's about as friendly of a greeting Elicity's going to get. A lump begins to form in her throat. She swallows it back quickly. Talking to the council has always been her weakness.

"Master Windu, forgive me, but I bring unfortunate news from Pathar."

"Have the droids returned to reclaim the mining outposts?" Obi Wan asks.

Elicity shakes her head. "No, Master Kenobi. I'm afraid this is much more serious. My padawan, Summer Alee, has been having dreams…of her past."

No one in the council responds. Dead silence. Yoda speaks up. "Alarming news, this is. Come to Coruscant, you and your padawan shall. Deal with this problem, the Council must."

Elicity nods. "Yes Master Yoda."

"I sense a strong disturbance from the future, K'Ull." Windu says. He narrows his eyes. "I pray that the force protects us all."

Elicity nods, almost frantically.

"As Master Yoda said, come to Coruscant immediately." Windu motions to the other members of the council. "We'll be expecting you." The holograph dims and fades away.

Elicity shuts off the projector and drops to her knees. The lamps cast her face in dark shadows. Blackness all around.

_Windu had said to _p_ray that the force protects us all._ _Yes. Only the force can help now. Only the force can protect Summer. _

It is a while later when Elicity finally stands. She turns to leave. Her mind is afire with old prophecies and long arguments among the Jedi Council. Snatches of conversations waft through her mind.

_ "It was our own choice to make her our problem…move the girl from the temple…isolate them where she'll never learn what happened…" _Elicity gets inside the turbo life and commands it to return to ground level. As the lift moves down the shaft, Elicity finds herself deep in thought. _They forced me to train her,_ she tells herself. _I promised to never tell her the truth._ _What if I had told her the truth? _The turbolift slows to a stop. _Would things have turned out differently?_

Doors open.

She steps out—into chaos. The commotion rippling through the HQ building pulls her out of her are everywhere. Shouts rise up above the hubbub.

"Enemy unit's inbound!"

"It's a surprise attack!"

"We have a code red!"

Elicity pulls aside a clone trooper. "What's going on?"

The soldier is holding a hologram, communicating with one of the commanders of a far off outpost. He looks up, surprised. "Commander…ma'am! Unidentified attackers slipped through our sensors only minutes ago. We have a large scale attack force baring down on Almega. Arrival is imminent!"

Elicity leaves the clone trooper to disappear into the crowd. She switches on her own com-link. "Major Exx?"

"Enemy gunships are coming in fast and low." Elicity looks to her side just as the Major detaches himself from a cluster of passing troopers. He walks beside her. "So far we have no idea how they snuck under our systems. Communications with the fleet are scrambled and half of the base is unprepared. Things are looking bad. They're bound to get worse."

Elicity weeds her way through the HQ's halls before reaching the doors. A wailing alarm comes to life as she steps outside. She stops. Turns to face Major Exx. "I'm going to find Summer."

Major Exx's voice is barely audible over the sound of the alarm. "It won't be safe out there Commander."

"You worry about protecting this base. Captain Grey will be able help you lead an effective defense."

The major opens his mouth to protest but shuts it.

"Yes, ma'am. Be safe."

Elicity leaves the clone trooper just inside the building and walks out onto a walkway. All around the base, giant metal plates along the ground are reeling open. Massive anti-aircraft guns rise up out of the black and turn to face the sky. She can see the soldiers inside the guns turrets, working the controls. One of them spots Elicity and nods. It's the last thing she sees.

A sleek black ship bursts out from over the forest. It's a blur, streaking overhead. Fast and low, just like the Major had said. Before the Republic AA guns can take aim a salvo of missiles detach themselves from the ship's wings. Five black objects roaring towards the HQ. Her head turns but it's too late. It only takes a split second.

A wave of surging heat. A strong pulse of air. A blinding flash of light. All she knows is that one moment she's walking, the next she's hurtling through the air. The ground falls away before rushing back towards her. There's a sharp crack as one of her legs snaps on impact. Her shoulder digs into the ground. A flash of pain then nothing. As she rolls to a stop, pieces of debris from the building dig into her back and side. Elicity hardly feels any of it. The pain becomes distant. She's losing consciousness. One phrase runs through her mind over and over. '_They've come to kill her. They've come to kill her.' _Slowly her thoughts begin to run together. She can't think clearly. Elicity tries to stand but something is pinning her to the ground. The loud booms of AA guns and enemy rockets are all she hears. "Summer!" she screams. Maybe her padawan will hear her desperate cry and come to her. Maybe her padawan is already dead. Maybe everything is already lost. Elicity takes in a ragged breath before her vision fades to black.


	3. A Teardrop

**Chapter Two: A Teardrop**

**.:Summer:.**

Before the attack…

"Climb down the tunnel, talk to the water, and report back to Master Elicity at the HQ center" she says to herself. Summer peers down into the tunnel. Through the shadows, she can see a large cylindrical protruding from the side of the dirt tunnel. Thick ropey vines hang from the bottom of the cylinder. Summer closes her eyes and concentrates. Using the force, she reaches towards the cylinder and examines the object through her mind. She senses gears and belts inside the cylinder's metal shell. It's some type of primitive pulley mechanism. The vines act as ropes that can carry people up and down the tunnel. _'I wonder if Elicity built this?' _she thinks as she lets herself down into the hole. She lowers her body in until she's hanging on to the edge only by her fingertips. She dangles over a seemingly bottomless pit. The pulley and vines are about four meters under her. Summer let's go of the edge while simultaneously pushing off of the dirt walls with her feet. She reaches out and grabs the vines, stopping her fall. Summer's momentum kicks the pulley mechanism into operation causing loud creaks and groans to sound from the cylinder. The pulley is moving, but at a sluggish pace. Creeeak! Gears inside the cylinder complain. Skriiiiitch! The gears are starting to warm up to the new movement. Summer is moving faster now, dropping deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Skreee! Whoosh! With one last sound of protest, the gears give in and the pulley accelerates. The vine drops Summer just short of a total free fall. Summer's stomach drops with her and she's glad she hasn't had breakfast. That wouldn't have ended well.

As she continues to fall, she looks up to where the tunnel entrance used to be. The large hole is only a pin-prick of light, fading farther and farther into the distance. Soon afterwards, the light is gone. The ride down the tunnel is completely dark. Summer only has to hope that the pulley doesn't give away. Elicity would be devastated to find her splattered at the bottom of some underground cave.

The only sound is the moist air, rushing over Summer as she descends. More than once, Summer wonders if the cave even has an end. How long has she been falling? About three full minutes? If only she could remember the equation for free-fall, maybe she can estimate her distance. Summer tries to work the numbers but can't concentrate. She gives up. She was never very good at arithmetic stuff anyway.

She continues to descend for another minute or two before the vine begins to slow. It continues to lower smoothly until it ends in an abrupt stop. A warm breeze indicates that Summer dropped into a large open space. She looks down to see where she is. Nothing to see except more darkness. Is the ride over? She lets her feet down and searches for a ledge or something to step onto. Once again, nothing. Did the vine stop midway? For several silent seconds, Summer hangs motionless in the dark and waits for something to happen. She yanks on the vine. It sways a little but doesn't budge. Another yank. Still doesn't move. She sighs. It's time to see what's the problem. Holding on to the vine with one arm, Summer uses her other to draw out one of her lightsabers. She pulls it up out her sheath and thumbs the activation switch. A sunset orange blade flares to life. The lightsaber's glow casts Summer's surroundings in a dim light. Somewhere along the trip the tunnel has changed from a two and half meter dirt hole to a massive square shaft over ten meters across. Summer raises her saber up like a torch. She's facing one of the shaft's walls. The wall is made of mammoth slabs of cracked, brown, stone. Giant pictures of strange symbols and ancient signs, half covered by centuries old dust, have been engraved into the stone work. Summer leans out, making the vine spin her in a circle. She looks over each of the shaft's four walls. They're all the same. Cracked stones covered in artwork. She can't possibly climb the walls; the groves from the drawings are too shallow to use as handholds. Nothing that Summer sees offers her a way down._ 'Down'_ Summer thinks. _'Maybe down is where I should be looking.'_ She aims her lightsaber beneath her. Below, the tunnel extends farther into inky blackness. No help there. Wait. Something glints in Summer's eyes. About eight meters down a stone troth juts out from one of the walls. A dark liquid reflects the orange lightsaber. _'What is that?'_ She waves her sword back and forth, trying to make it reflect at different angles. Is it…oil? An idea immediately pops up. Maybe she can light a fire atop the oil. The extra light could help her find a way to get the pulley moving again. It's always like Elicity to send Summer into someplace with broken equipment. Elicity is always trying to give Summer new challenges to "use her mind" and "perfect her skills". It wouldn't come as of a surprise if she has to cross a lake of lava before she reaches the water.

Using her mind, Summer blasts the wall across from her with the Force. The energy slams into the wall, rebounds and hits Summer. Riding off the energy's knockback, Summer swings up towards the opposite wall. The vine brings her within inches of a large picture of the sun. Summer twists around and drives her sword deep into the stone, anchoring herself to the wall and keeping the vine from swinging back out like a pendulum. Sparks, from where the lightsaber bored into the wall, rain down into the oil filled troth. Summer is greeted by instant success as the oil ignites, turning the troth into a flaming torch. But it doesn't end there. The fire races through tiny trenches that line the sides of the shaft. One by one torches far below begin to flare up. The formally impenetrable darkness is now being pushed back. In its place, a warm, bright light fills the air. In the distance, at the bottom of the tunnel, the last torch lights. The flickering light reveals sharp rock formations that stick up like daggers. Summer grins. "This is awesome" she whispers to herself. Farther down, past the first troth, a small open doorway has been cut into one of the rock walls. Over the doorway is a slight outcropping of rock. Summer observes the scenario and outlines a mental route to get through the opening. She can jump down from the vine, grab the ledge and swing down through the doorway. Sounds easy. Summer deactivates her sword. No longer anchored, the vine sway back towards the center of the shaft. Summer lets go and plummets. Her hair whips back behind her as she falls. Down she goes. Eleven meters down, she reaches out for the stone ledge. Not missing a beat she swings herself forward, sails through the doorway, hits the ground, rolls once, and comes up on both feet. She checks herself out. Not even a scratch. Perfect. In her mind she sees people applauding her acrobatic jump. 'Outstanding!' is what they'd be saying. Clapping all around. Maybe a few cheers. She gets none of that. Nobody is around. Only Summer. Crap, all that jumping and no one is there to see it. Wasted effort.

She ventures forward. She's now in a dark, stone passage leading to a set of uneven steps that go up and out of sight. Somewhere distance, there's a low rumble, like a waterfall. Summer jogs though the passage and up the steps. The steps curl and wind as they ascend. She feels like she's running through some old, haunted castle. Up the stairs Summer goes until she reaches an arched entryway half covered in vines. The rumbling has grown louder. It has risen to a powerful roar coming from somewhere beyond the foliage covered entry. Parting vines, Summer step through the arch—and gasps.

She finds herself standing on a rocky ledge overlooking a giant underground biome. It's breathtaking, from the white minerals studding the high ceiling, shining down like stars, to the enormous waterfalls plunging off the rocky cliffs. Except for the water from the waterfall and the blackish, subterranean rock walls, everything glows. Tall tree-like plants shed dark blue from their oversized leaves, countless vines glow a thousand hues of green; even the grass glows, or it looks like grass. Covering almost every centimeter of the entire underground world are tiny leafy plants, glowing purple in the overhead crystals' twilight shine.

Summer doesn't know how long she spends staring at the glowing land. She just wants to just stand there and take it all in at one time. To memorize it and never forget. How long has her master known about this? What other surprises await? There's only one way to find out. Time to explore!

The ledge Summer stands on is about fifty yards up – about one third of the way from the ground to the ceiling above – and she needs to find a way to get down. After a little searching she spots a rope ladder leading down to a dirt trail. The trail disappears into a forest of giant mushroom plants. Animal calls and screeches, barely audible over the waterfall, come from the glowing forest. Summer climbs down from the ladder and rushes off down the trail…

The journey down the trail is short and uneventful. The dirt path brings Summer deeper into the forest until it opens up to a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a deep pool of water, hardly ten meters from one shore to the next, bordered by tightly packed, bushy trees with a slight red hue. Two of the trees are bent to either side, making room for a tiny stream flowing into the pool. The pool is glowing with light.

As soon as Summer spots the glowing water she feels a powerful draw to it. She goes over to the pool's edge and peers down. The water is clear and deep. At the bottom she can see white lights twinkling in the water. She looks closer. Embedded in the lake bed below are white crystals, just like the ones in the ceiling above. The crystals' powerful light shine up to the water's surface in wide shafts, setting the pool aglow with their moonlight color. Beautiful, just beautiful. Suddenly a small shape pokes up from the water. Summer jerks back in surprise and nearly falls. She quickly regains her composure and takes a look. It's only a fish sticking it's head out the water. The fish is glowing bright orange. It stares at Summer , unblinking. Something about the fish, other than that it's glowing, intrigues Summer. Behind the fish's wide eyes she sees an intelligent creature.

"Can you talk?" Summer asks. As soon as she asks the question, she feels like an idiot. _Of course fish can't talk! What am I, stupid? _Summer is about to get up when the fish responds. It wriggles in the water, clearly shaking it's head as if to say "No." _Either I'm crazy, or this fish, really trying to say something. _Summer kneels down at the water's edge. Forget the glowing water, she's interested in the fish now. Her next question is as straightforward as the first. "What do you want?" The fish ducks down into the water. It darts through the water with lightning speed, leaving a fading trail of orange bubbles in its wake, before returning to Summer. It pokes back out the water and motions with its head. Summer looks. For a second time she gasps. Glowing bubbles float underwater spelling out a short message.

"_We have a message for you."_

"We?"

The fish nods and disappears below the surface. Moments later it returns with a large school of fish following close behind. The school is a rainbow of colors. Blues, greens, yellows, reds, and everything in between. The orange fish is obviously the leader. It shoots through the water before resurfacing. "_Sit and watch."_

Summer laughs to herself. "I can't believe I'm obeying a fish, but, okay." Summer finds a natural indentation in the ground at the lakes edge and sits down. It's surprisingly comfortable. The lead fish nods and goes back down to his school. The other fish swirl around their leader, creating a multi-colored globe of light. Suddenly they split into groups and race off towards the center of the pool. Each group is divided by color and lays down its own distinctive trail of bubbles. Faster and faster the groups go until they reach the center of the pool. Then, with grace and agility, the fish leap out the water, flip, and dive back down. Their jumps are perfect, without a single splash. Where the fish had just been airborne a multi colored band of light is left behind, slowly fading into the air. Seconds later the fish have already regained speed and pull off another acrobatic jump. This time some of their paths cross and create intersecting beams of light. Others leap lower. Some higher. As they all return into the water they leave a complex geometric shape shimmering over the pool. Summer feels a rising urge to clap and doesn't resist. That last jump was pretty cool. '_It wouldn't hurt to stay a few minutes and watch'_ she thinks. '_What harm could it do?'_

Summer watches the show of flying fish. The lights curve through the air with each leap and dive. Sometimes the fish create simple arcs. Other times they leave behind elaborate symbols, a mix of complex polygons and sweeping curves. Each shape is more fascinating than the next. Time passes. The shapes grow bigger. More complicated. Some of the shapes can even move. Something about the changing symbols of the lights begin to take effect on Summer. She begins to feel drowsy and sluggish. She's tired. It's hard to stay focused. Symbol after symbol. The effect becomes more and more powerful. She's so tired that she doesn't even notice her own name take shape in bright multi-colored lights over the lake. _'I've been here too long. I need to go…go and find the talking water.'_ With some effort Summer stands up. She staggers, regains her balance, takes several wobbly steps and collapses back to the ground. She tries to stand again but is too weak. A sick feeling comes over her. All she wants to do is stay on the ground. To sleep. The nausea quickly subsides and sleepiness returns. "_Just a little rest"_ she slurs. She can hardly talk. Her vision is growing darker. She doesn't fight it. She succumbs and falls into a deep sleep…and that's when the dream begins.

_It is a small, one room house made of wood_. The windows are drawn closed. Except for several simple pieces of furniture and an unlit fireplace, the room is void of decoration. Next to the fire place is a little table. Resting on the table is a single candle that burns steadily, creating a bronze halo of light in the shadowy room. In that halo is a chair with two figures…

The girl, four, almost five years old, lies in the young lady's arms and cries softly. The tears fall freely onto the ladies rich garments. She holds the girl close, not minding the increasing tears. "It's okay" the lady says soothingly. They're not going to take you. You're safe here." The girl, as young as she is, can hear the fear in her mother's trembling voice.

'_They are going to take us and kill us.'_ is what the girl thinks. That's all she thinks. It's all she can think about. About how the dark people will kill her. The lady's tears mix with her daughter's. Mother wonders if the rumors are true about what the man said in the book. The rumors say her daughter will kill him. Is that true? Most people say no, but could they be wrong? The girl shivers. She's not cold; she's uncertain and scared. What could happen next? What WILL happen next? "Mommy?" the girl says. She looks up at her mother. Tears are still falling from her glowing eyes. "What if they find us, Mommy?" Just thinking about being found makes her tremble deep inside. She leans back into her mother's shoulder and begins to cry harder. The tears come and come. Her mother hugs her tighter.

"Don't cry, no one is going to hurt you." As the young mother talks, she strokes her daughter's hair. Her fingers are shaking. She isn't sure if her own words are for her daughter or herself. Both of them are in tears. Both of them are afraid. Her and her daughter are both too young to be dodging death like this, hiding in dark rooms while people search for them. Being hunted. "They won't find us" she says to her daughter. "I promise, they will never find us." Though Daughter continues to cry, it's to those words that she finally goes to sleep.

The girl's sleep is restless and plagued by nightmares. It's horrible. More than once she wakes up crying out for her mother. Each time, her mother is right there to hold and comfort her. She goes back to sleep, wakes up crying, goes to sleep, and wakes up. It becomes a cycle. Soon she begins to notice slight changes each time she wakes up. Like how the candle grows dimmer; or how pale light begins to peek between the shades covering the windows. One time she awakes and can hear freezing wind whipping outside against the cabin walls. The sun is rising and giving birth to a cold day. When the girl falls back asleep she doesn't wake up again until she is roused by a harsh banging.

Bam! Bam! Bam! The girl is conscious and fully awake after the first hit. Someone is at the door. They've been found. The daughter looks around for her mother. She's next to her. Mother is up in a flash. "What's happening?" the girl asks. Her mother holds a finger to her lips, signaling for silence. The girl obeys. More banging at the door. It's a loud heavy noise that reverberates through the room. Someone outside begins to shout.

"Come out! The house is surrounded!" The mother acts quickly. She rushes over to the fireplace. There's a rug there. She throws back the rug and whispers a code. Part of the floor slides opens up to reveal a set of steps descending into a poorly lit tunnel. The mother returns to her daughter , picks her up and carries her over to the escape tunnel. The girl begins to cry again. The people at the door are still yelling. "We're coming in!" someone shouts. The sound of large vehicles pulling up to the house can be heard over the howling wind. What happens next comes in a blur. The mother and her daughter are just starting down into the tunnel. Crash! Something rams the door. The door bursts into splintered chunks of wood. The girl is being held close to her mother's chest as they begin their descent. Someone rushes into the doorway. "Stop right there!" The mother doesn't listen. She continues down. Pow! Pow! Two staccato blaster shots ring loud and clear. The girl's mother grunts. Blood sprays the little girl's clothes. Her mother tries to continue but wobbles and falls forward into the tunnel. She and her daughter tumble down the steps before hitting a cold stone floor. They both lie at the bottom of the steps. Crying and sobbing, the girl climbs out of her mother's limp arms. Her head is bruised from where she hit the steps on the way down. Heavy footfalls creak on the wood floor above as people enter the house. Booted feet can be heard rushing down into the tunnel. Suddenly, people are all around the girl. They are saying things to each other. "We got her, sir!" "The mother is dead." "Bring her up!" Someone grabs her roughly by the arm. The girl screams and tries to twist out their grip. It's too tight. She looks up at her captor. The person is dressed in a fancy blue military uniform with high black boots. Two long swords are sheathed on either side of his waist. His face is covered by a light helmet with a tinted visor covering his eyes. One hand is holding the girl, in his other is a pistol.

"Geston and Kavol!" the man calls. "Get the girl outside. Leave the mother." Two people rush to the girl's side and take both of her arms. She protests and gets no response. Geston and Kavol drag her backwards up the steps. She struggles in vain to escape their grasp.

"Noo!" she cries. They can't take her. _'She said they'd never find us!'_ the girl thinks. "Mommy!" She can see her mother slumped on the ground in a heap; blood is gushing down her face from two neat blaster shots. Her mother's eyes are empty. The girl's frantic screams cause her mother to stir. Not dead yet. She lifts her head. She tries to reach out for her daughter but fails.

"I love you…" she whispers. It is all she can say before falling limp. Death has come. The girl's screams and cries grow louder but the soldiers don't listen. _Still dragging her, they take her through the door and outside into the cold…_

When the dream ends, the screams continue echo. Another dream begins. This time Summer is conscience. She's floating through an infinite black world where there's nothing but darkness. She can't talk, be she can hear her own thoughts like a distant voice on the wind.

"That other dream was almost real." Summer thinks. Somewhere far off, the distant voice repeats her thoughts back to her audibly. "I actually felt like I _was_ the girl hiding with her mother! It's like we were the same person!" Summer lingers on this last thought. In her mind she replays what she saw. The former dream appears ahead of her like it's on a giant screen. She sees the mother being killed; the girl screaming and crying. It's heartbreaking to see the girl dragged away again. She remembers the mother's last words. A simple "_I love you"_ was all she could say before dying. Summer feels the emotion of the dream weighing down on her like an anvil. She can really feel the girl's doubts and fears. There is a definite connection between the two of them. _'Who am I, really?'_ she questions herself. Summer half expects the answer to just pop up in her mind. It doesn't. All she hears is the voice, repeating her question over and over. 'Who am I really?' it repeats. No one answers. Another mystery. Another problem to solve. The second dream slowly fades away and dissolves.

Summer wakes up. Her eyes open and draw in her surroundings. She's lying face up in a patch of glowing grass. The grass' purple glow drowns out her view of the ceiling. Several glow bugs buzz lazily around her face. One of them lands on her nose. Summer snorts and waves them away with her hand. She remembers how she fell asleep watching the glowing lights arc across the water. How long has she been out? She stands up on wobbly feet. She feels woozy and has a killer head-ache. Other than that, she's fine. No injuries from stumbling around like a drunken idiot before passing out on the ground. Summer brushes herself off. She wonders if she's the only person to ever be hypnotized by flying fish. The idea alone sounds stupid enough. That was something that'd NEVER been on her _Things To Do_ list. Not only has she been hypnotized though, she's also dreamed about, what could be, her forgotten past. She has unlocked a new mystery. A mystery that leads back to her first mystery. Her first dream lingers in her memory. Getting to the bottom of this will require Elicity's help—as always. '_I should be getting back to Almega.'_ Summer thinks. '_Ten minutes? Half hour? It's hard to tell.'_ However long it's been, it's time to go and report back to her Master. She's probably waiting for her.

Summer begins to leave. As she goes, she looks back and takes one last look at the small pool in the forest. She visually takes in the way the trees curve around the water, the pale glow, the telepathic, glowing fish; she locks all of these into her memory. She tells herself that she'll return to the underground forest in another day. Hopefully that day is soon. Though she isn't sure, Summer thinks she can see a small fin poking up from the water, waving good bye. She smiles and waves back. Then she turns and runs off through the glowing underworld.

Summer easily makes her back through the forest. She relocates the rope ladder and climbs back up to the stairs that lead down into the stone passage. She follows it until she's back at the passage's entryway. It lies adjacent to the vertical tunnel with the pulley made of vines. The passage entrance is full of grey smoke drifting out from the burning oil torches she'd ignited with her lightsaber. Breathing without erupting into fits of coughing is impossible. She pushes forward. Through the low hanging haze she spots a glowing orb by the doorway leading out into the stone shaft. She hadn't seen the orb earlier when she'd first dove inside. Still coughing from all the smoke, she makes her way over to the glow. As she gets closer she can see that it's a large crystal, like the ones from the underground world. The crystal is imbedded into a slim metal box lying flat against the wall. There's no lock. Summer creaks open the lid. Inside she finds a military-grade jet pack. A small paper note is attached. Summer peels off the note. She squints to read the tiny writing. Summer reads it out-loud.

"'I thought you might find a jet-pack is faster than using a vine.' –Elicity-" Summer laughs humorously to herself. "I could have used a jet pack on the way down too" she mutters. Summer straps on the jetpack and walks over to the doorway. She leaves the note in the box. She looks out through the doorway. There is too much smoke to see clearly. She'll be flying half blind. Gladly, the force is just as good as a guide as sight. Summer leaps out into the dark. She drops for a second before activating the jets and rocketing back up towards the planet's surface. As she flies, a small detail begins to nag her. The note. It was old and crinkled. The writing was faded. How long ago had Elicity planted the box? Had she anticipated Summer's question long before she'd asked? How much did her master actually know? Once again Summer doesn't know the answer. The questions just keep piling up…


	4. A Rough Decent

Long time since the last update! Well here we are. The previous chapters have been edited. If you have time, go check em' out. Especially chapter one: A Situation. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Rough Ascent**

"_Almega is shaped like a rectangle. The main portion of the base is five kilometers long, one and a half kilometers wide. Engineers have separated the base into three primary sectors and one outside sector. Each section is a little over one point six square kilometers. On one end of the base is the Command Sector (C-sect). It contains the Head Quarters and a wide array of intelligence gathering stations. On the other end is the Station Sector (S-sect) which is where the supply buildings and barracks are situated. In between C-sect and S-sect is M-Sect. Middle Sector holds the training fields and additional storage buildings. The hanger is a separate mini-base located two kilometers from Almega. It's official name is called Beta but most of the clones call it Sector 4" _–Major Exx. (Taken from a recording of the Major briefing Captain Grey upon his arrival to Almega.)

**Captain Grey**

**Two minutes before the attack…**

Alarmsblaring. Soldiers running this way and that. Everywhere, troopers are rushing to their battle positions. Two AT-RT's, clinking and clanking as they go, gallop towards the base's main gate. Captain Grey runs through the hubbub of it all, completely unfazed. He stays focused as he leads a small cadre of sergeants through C-sect. He's on his way to the HQ to meet with Major Exx in order to formulate a battle-plan. Earlier he had heard that Commander K'Ull was at the HQ too. Good. The only person missing is the colonel himself. That bastard is up in space with the fleet commander. He monitors Almega, his own base, from a Command ship orbiting the planet.

Grey is on his intercom, talking to one of his Lieutenants in Sector 4.

"I don't care that Elicity's transport isn't ready! We're under imminent attack Lieutenant! Get every man you got working to get our _gunships_ in the air–_now_!"

Lieutenant Karr, the trooper on the other side of the comms, stumbles on his next words.

"Sir, four of the ships are out on rounds to the mining facility and the other five have to be refueled. Our tenth still has damaged cooling chambers…the other ten will need to be brought to the launching decks. It might be a while before we can launch the first ships."

Captain curses. How the hell can all twenty gunship's be out of the action? Sector 4 is always unorganized. Colonel is Viper is too busy playing god-in-space and Major Exx is always worrying about transporting mats to the surrounding outposts. Contrary to popular belief, the Grand Army isn't _always _as professional as it looks. Grey about to release a barrage of curses aimed at who-knows-what when all of the sudden a collective shout rises up around him.

"Incoming!"

Captain looks up. Oh, no.

A large black shape suddenly streaks out from over the forest. It's barreling towards the Headquarters building. A hiss, a roar and then an explosion...

**Summer**

The explosion comes shortly after Summer begins her trip up the tunnel. She can feel the vibrations of the blast as the tunnel walls shake and tremor from the aftershock. Rocks and dirt are shaken loose from their homes and tumble down into the dark. For several seconds there's nothing else. Only her rumbling jet pack. But soon, like roaring thunder, come the muffled booms of Anti-Aircraft guns peppering the sky. Instantly Summer knows what's happening. At first, it's hard for her to accept. The CIS haven't posed an immediate threat since…not since she's ever been on Pathar. That's a long time. Obviously the Confederacy is returned hungry for blood. Almega is under attack!

**Captain Grey**

BOOM! The ground rocking blast throws the sure footed Captain off his feet. He hits the ground hard. He doesn't stay down though. In a flash, he rolls over and scrambles back up. His ears are filled with a distant ringing from the sound of the explosion. The Captain straightens his slightly askew helmet. Fiery debris are raining down around him. _"Like brimstone from hell" _he thinks. Woosh! A wall of smoke and dust from the blast washes over the Captain. Grey's helmet switches to Night Vision mode, letting him see through the black clouds rolling away from what used to be the HQ building. All around him clone troopers are climbing back to their feet. Some of them are still on the ground. Others are already back on the move. People are shouting and yelling. Total confusion. Captain Grey looks out towards the black mushroom of fire curling into the sky. All he can think is of the officers in the HQ. Major Exx _and_ Commander and Elicity were both in there, right before the missiles hit. It's possible that they're safe…possible but unlikely. Captain switches comlink channels in order to contact his superiors.

"Captain Grey calling Major Exx!"

No reply.

"General K'Ull!"

Even as he calls they're names again he begins to run in the direction of the HQ. He glances behind his shoulder to spot the lieutenants who'd been following him earlier. All four of them are up and standing but one is limping. He's been hit by some of the falling debris. Captain motions for them to follow him towards the HQ. They nod in silent affirmation and break out into a sprint towards ground zero of the explosion. A fiery haze settles around the five clones as they grow closer and closer to the HQ's ruins. Twisted things take shape in the haze. There are fallen and shattered walls, the flaming remains of support structures, and collapsed ceilings. But most of the shapes are other clone troopers. The victims of the explosion. Crumpled and limp bodies are scattered everywhere. At first they're just shadows in the smoke to the Captain but the closer he gets the more distinct the shapes of the fallen become…and some of them are still alive. Plenty of clone troopers have been disfigured with missing limbs and crushed bones, but they still struggle for breath. Captain can only assume that the puddles he's splashing through are his own brothers' blood. Some reach out for help, but Captain passes by. He has his priorities.

"Spread out! Search for General K'Ull!" He orders. "Don't stop until she's found!" The lieutenants don't need to be told twice. They immediately get to work. They labor fiercely, upheaving the burning debris and digging through the destruction. Captain Grey calls in other clone troopers to join the effort. Soon twenty clones are looking for their commander. Even as they work, more enemy gunships race overhead the search group, firing down missiles and rockets into the base. Explosions billow up around them. Smoke and fire spreading in every direction. The clones continue on. A cry rises up from a duo of troopers near Captain.

"I found her!" "She's over here!" "Quick, we need a medic!" Captain dashes in their direction. An instant later he's with the two troopers. He finds General K'Ull pinned down by a jagged beam of metal digging into her back. Her robes are drenched in blood. She's unconscious; oblivious and blind to the activity around her. Captain drops to his commander's side to check her pulse. It's fluttering, but still there. Thank god.

"We'll get you out of here." Captain says out-loud. He knows Elicity can't hear him but he says it anyway. "The nearest secured medical center is over in M-Sect."

"Her condition is bad" says one of the troopers. Captain gives the trooper a sidelong glance. The clone has a distinct cross painted onto one half of his helmet. "I don't know if we could carry her all the way there Captain."

Captain says nothing. He is thinking. The other troopers from the search group have gathered around, making a cramped circle. Captain waves them away, telling them to spread out, dammit. _'We'll need vehicular transport for the General if she's to survive. Speeder bikes wouldn't be able to hold her.' _Captain stands up and points to the trooper with the cross. "Name?"

"Corporal Anglo, sir."

"Get together some troopers and clear the debris around the General. I'll find any nearby assistant units."

"Yes, sir!"

As Anglo goes, Captain switches to another communications channel to call in the nearest repulsar lift units in the vicinity. He gets a response from a medical vehicle and two tanks in M-sect. Good. He'll use all three of them. He gives the trio of vehicles his coordinates and tells them to get there ASAP. It's an emergency. The tank pilots confirm their orders. ETA, five minutes.

Captain is about to join Anglo when a slight gasping sound draws his attention back to Commander K'Ull. She's awake and her eyes are open. She motions slightly for Captain to kneel down, closer. He does.

"Summer." She says it quietly so only Captain can hear. The other clones keep working.

Captain Grey shakes his head. "I haven't seen her Commander…I can only hope for the best."

"After everyone is gone, she'll need your help, Captain…tell me you'll watch over her."

What is she talking about? Captain Grey isn't really sure what to say so he decides to just agree with her. Even if the transportation arrives quick enough and they get Elicity to a medical bay she probably won't live to see nightfall. He nods.

"I'll make sure she's okay."

Satisfactory answer. She nods.

"Thank you."

Grey ducks instinctively as a gunship swoops down firing lasers in all directions. A nearby anti-aircraft gun takes a direct hit and explodes. Bits and pieces of its metal plating shower the ground. "Don't thank me yet" he mutters. All he sees is confusion and chaos. Clones are dying around him. The Commander is dying by his side. Who has time to worry about one girl named Summer? There are more important things to focus on. Like the fact that the entire base is falling apart before his eyes.

**Summer**

Summer increases the speed of her jet pack. The exit is right over her, growing larger and larger. Whoosh! She rockets out of the tunnel. She force blasts a hole through the forest canopy and shoots up into the air.

It's still a clear autumn day with a perfect breeze drifting across the endless forests. Warm sun. Nice breeze. A flock of birds burst from the trees as a loud explosion rumbles in the distance. Summer looks out towards the south-east. She can see a black cloud of smoke rising up in thick puffy layers from the base. It must be from the giant explosion. A smaller column of smoke is forming near the first one. With the smoke as a backdrop, dark gunships are flying over Almega, firing missiles and lasers. Bright streaks of AA gunfire from the clone troopers are spraying the sky around the ships. Whoever the attackers are, they're definitely not CIS. Summer knows what droid ships look like, and these aren't anything like them. These look like pirates. Highly organized pirates.

A distant roar draws Summer's attention away from Almega. She turns around. Far off, flying over the forests are a trio of more incoming gunships. One of the ships detaches from the trio and accelerates in Summer's direction. _'Oh…_' They've seen her. Summer uses her jet-pack to gain altitude and races off into the sky. Hopefully the ships will bypass her and continue on to the battle. Why chase one person when there is an entire base lying up ahead? Summer cruises towards the fight. She doesn't have to fly long. The fight comes to her.

The gunship catches up—fast. With a loud drone it dives from a higher altitude and swoops down onto Summer, engulfing her in the ship's cold shadow. The gunship is large, bulky, and bristling with missile racks and Air-to-Land canons. Its fuselage is one long rocket shaped tube patched with armor. Connected to the top of the fuselage are two massive, horizontal wings that run almost the entire gunship's length. It's a fugly machine with no style. Just guns and wings.

The ship drops closer and closer to Summer until its flying almost directly above her. A giant bird of prey closing in on its prey. She gets caught in ship's draft and pulled alongside in its invisible air current. Prey captured.

A door on the side of the ship flies open and a rotating platform slides out. The platform is covered in a blue particle shield. Inside the hazy blue bubble is a bolted down heavy machine gun. A soldier in black armor and a gas mask is strapped into a chair behind the gun. Two barrels of ammunition have been connected to the platform's sides. The soldier looks at Summer and rotates the gun until it's pointing directly at her. He flips a switch and blasts away. Orange streaks of semi-crystalized energy blaze over Summer's head. Several whizz by her ear. All misses. The man rotates the gun a little, readjusting his aim, and fires off another long burst of energy. Summer uses her jet pack and escapes up higher, towards the top of the gunship. The soldier tracks her movement, sending a sweeping arc of bullets after her. Summer is too quick and the orange crystals cut through empty air. The gunner looks at his gun then back at Summer. How could he have missed? He's frustrated. He holds up a finger to Summer before squeezing down on the gun triggers. Summer is prepared. With a crack and hiss she ignites both of swords at the same time. Orange and light red. It's her turn to fight.

She spins in mid-air while letting her swords twirl around her like a vortex of light. The oncoming energy rounds reflect off her light-sabers and spiral off into the sky. She puts her jet pack on full power and escapes out of the gunship's draft. She rockets away from the ship before making a sharp turn and charges back towards the gunner. The gunner scrambles to aim and shoot. Not fast enough. Summer uses the force and crushes the spherical shield around him. The hazy bubble turns from light blue to dark red as the force closes around it like an invisible hand. There's a sharp snap and the shield explodes into a ring of energy. A split second later Summer strikes her target. She slams down onto the platform, making it tilt to the side and screech against the metal arms connecting it to the gunship. Summer drives both of her lightsabers into the gunner's side. He gives a painful gasp then lurches awkwardly in his chair. His muscles go limp and he slides forward against the restraints. He's dead.

Summer deactivates her jetpack. The wind is swirling around her, threatening to throw her off. She has to hold onto the back of the chair just to keep from being blown away. ***Whiiirrr!*** Suddenly the platform begins to move beneath Summer's feet. The door on the side of the ship has reopened and the gunship is being pulled back into its gaping maw.

The platform slips inside the ship's cargo bay and the doors reel shut with a decisive bang, closing off the howling wind.

It is dark.

Silence.

Summer's eyes quickly adjust to a glowing line of dim floor lights. She's in the middle of the gunship's holding bay. The bay is a nine meter long tube with two opposite rows of metal chairs bolted to the walls. There's a meter wide isle of walking space running down between the chairs. Summer is in the middle of the aisle. To her left and right are large doors that can open up to allow soldiers to disembark or deploy gun turrets. The gun turret still has a dead body sitting at its controls.

*Click, click, click* The final and most important detail. The soldiers. Nineteen of them. Eight in front and seven behind her. The bad guys. All of them are in black armor with dark combat boots and helmets with grey visors. They're standing with their rifles aimed at Summer. The soldier nearest to her has a small pistol raised to Summer's forehead. He pulls the trigger.

Summer ducks with lightning speed and knocks the soldier down with a sweeping kick. She leaves him on the ground, stunned. Through the force, she rips an entire row of chairs from the wall and launches them out into the aisle. The chairs bowl into the armored soldiers in front of her. People are slammed into the wall and knocked to the ground. The soldiers behind her open fire. She leaps to the side, allowing the torrent of stun rounds to race by, then whips out her light sabers and launches herself into a fierce battle. In such close quarter combat the enemy have no way to dodge her rapid fire strikes. In quick succession she cuts down soldier after soldier. She stabs and slices her way through the opposition. In seconds, she renders seven soldiers dead at her feet.

But she still isn't done. The other grey clad fighters are starting to get up after being downed by a row of flying chairs. Summer uses telekinesis to drive them back to the ground. Then, she charges, and with the flash of her swords, finishes them off.

The last soldier crumples to the ground. Except for the humming of the engines the cargo bay has gone silent. With all the dead soldiers around her, it brings the image of a tomb to Summer's mind. She shakes the image from her head. All the soldiers are gone and it is time to deal with the pilots. Summer goes over to the circular blast door at the end of the cargo bay, plunges her swords into the thick metal and begins to cut the shape of a large circle. Showers of sparks make an audible hiss as they spray into the air. Summer hears faint shouting from the pilots on the other side of the door. She can sense their fear. They're scared of her. Suddenly the ships banks hard to the left. Summer almost loses her footing but manages to stay upright. She continues cutting her way through the door. Just a few more seconds. The pilots can be heard yelling for help through their intercoms. Their shouts are growing louder. Hissss! Suddenly the sparks stop. Summer's swords meet at the bottom of the circle. She kicks in the piece of cut-out metal and dives inside the cockpit. The cockpit is an open space with two chairs for the pilots and extra sitting room for additional passengers. It's a well-lit area with one, giant, segmented window wrapping across the front.

As one, the pilots both turn around in their chairs. Summer wastes no time. She spins once before using her momentum to hurtle both of her swords like discs of light. One pilot ducks, the other loses his head. The surviving pilot pulls out a pistol and fires. Summer side steps the laser and it hits the bulkhead. She draws her swords back into her hands and retaliates with a force push. The pilot is strapped into his seat but his head is jerked forward. The pilot's neck makes an audible snap. He falls forward, just like the gunman on the platform. Dead. The fight is over; the seventeen year old has taken control of the gunship.

Summer deactivates her lightsabers and rushes over to take one of the pilot chairs. She hates doing it but she hast to unbuckle and move one of the dead bodies before she can sit down. She drops the pilot with the broken neck to the floor. She would rather not mess with the one missing his head. Summer looks over the controls. They're simple. They remind her of the controls in her Jedi fighter that she hardly _ever_ uses. She'll have to do her best and recall her piloting lessons. Taking the controls she begins to adjust the ship's course. A few taps here and a few taps there…perfect! Several moments later she's flying down towards Almega. If only she knew what she was getting into.


	5. A Rougher Descent

**Chapter 4: A Rougher Descent**

The captured gunship cuts its way through thin air. Above, hangs a sapphire sky; below lies the dark forests. Outside, the engines rumble. Inside, is a stilled silence. The holding bay is littered with a thick line of dead soldiers that lead up to the doors separating the cabin from the rest of the ship. On the other side of the blast doors is Summer, sitting at the controls. Next to her, in the co-pilot seat, are the two secured corpses of the dead pilots.

Sunlight glints off the forward window. Through the wide, wrap-around viewport Summer can see tendrils of smoke, rising from Almega, whispering by the reinforced glass and curling around to the ship's sides. The tendrils twist and churn over the wings before being swept down towards the engines. There, the smoke is blown away into empty air. Dissipating into nothing.

Silence.

Summer's chair creaks slightly.

One of the pilot's head lolls to the side.

The on-board radio crackles to life with an automated voice.

"All forward units switch to secondary channel. Keep primary channel clear. Repeat, all forward units switch to secondary channel. Keep primary channel clear." The transmission ends. Back to silence. Earlier, shortly after Summer had first taken the ship, the radio had been crazy with chatter from the other pilots. Apparently they'd never expected one of their ship's to be hijacked. The transmissions had quickly ended when a commanding voice told everyone to switch to the _secondary _channel ASAP. Now an automatic reminder is being sent through every minute. To keep any people from, as the commander had said, '_transmitting any sensitive or classified data across the compromised channels'._ At first Summer had tried to find the codes to this 'second channel' but had come up empty. So, now, it's just her and a robotic voice repeating the same thing over. And over. And over.

Sixty seconds pass and the message starts again. "All forward units switch to…" Summer tunes the voice out and turns to one of the screens set into the wide spread of controls. With a few taps she pulls up a live image of Almega. The screen cuts through the heavy clouds of smoke and brings up a hazy blue feed of the battle. C-sect is a blazing inferno. At least fifteen enemy gunships are swarming the air, raining down their missiles. Half the Republic's buildings, the HQ included, are smoky shells of their former self. Crashed gunships stick up from the ground. Most of the anti-aircraft guns have been destroyed in the fierce air-to-land battle. M-sect and S-sect, in contrast to Command Sector, have only suffered minor damage. Two out of three sectors still alive. That's good. There's still plenty of time for the base to be saved.

A stray thought comes to Summer. She has no way of contacting Captain Grey and Elicity once she lands. She left her comlink in her room before going out into the forest earlier in the morning. The communicator in the gunship can only contact other ships. _I'll just have to find someone with a comms unit once I get down there._ Another thought comes. She doesn't have a plan. Not really. Just a few ideas about killing any bad guy she can find. "I'll just figure everything out when I arrive" she mutters to herself—then adds "Here goes nothing."

Summer launches the ship into a speedy descent.

The pilot's cabin slants down, and she is pushed back into her seat. Howling wind whips by. Red hot engines thunder. The gunship plummets through the sky.

From high above, the battle for Almega had looked pretty mild. It seemed like black dots (gunships) racing through clouds of smoke while avoiding sporadic flashes of light(explosions). But as Summer draws closer she see that things are anything _but_ mild. The gunships look larger—more powerful. The explosions—more deadly.

Still in dive, Summer edges the gunship towards C-sect. Most likely Major Exx and Elicity are both down there, fighting to save the sector. Though the fighting may be fierce, Summer is confident that she can at least stay in one piece.

Diving, diving, diving. Gunship losing altitude fast and faster. Suddenly she pulls the ship upright and descends through a thick curtain of hazy smoke.

She soars into the heart of the battle.

Things are a lot worse than she thought.

Summer is a ground fighter, accustomed to personal and up close conflicts. Air battle is an entirely different experience. Nothing could have prepared her for what she sees. Crisscrossing lasers, fire laced explosions, anti-missile flares, and spiraling missiles blur together in a chaotic display of color and lights. Greens, reds, oranges, and blues are all mixed with the heavy hanging cloud of grey. Damaged engines let out horrible screeches and growls.

Missiles hiss and roar.

Thunderous explosions.

Gunfire is coming from all directions. Too much going on. Aircraft, friends and foes, speeding above and below her. Summer begins to regret her decision of flying into the battle. Flying is for droids.

Bam! The cockpit shutters violently, rattling Summer in her seat. The ship dips and veers to the side before leveling back out. A chaotic symphony of alarms come to life. Reee! Reee! They shriek for her attention. A schematic of the ship blinks onto screen. Summer looks up and catches the left wing trailing a thin column of smoke. As bad as the chewed up metal looks, the screen says the damage isn't critical. Just a surface wound. _Whew. Close one. Now, I REALLY need to do something before I crash—for real. _Summer regains her composure. She ignores the alarms, takes note of the damage, and focuses. Focuses on _what_ the hell she's supposed to be doing.

Below her is C-sect, which is starting to look more like a fiery wasteland than a military base. Clone troopers are scattered everywhere and most of them are running. A few braver ones are gathered in defensive positions amidst the piles of rubble. To the east a truck escorted by are couple of tanks is rushing towards M-Sect. The heavy laser cannons mounted on the tanks are firing off rounds to keep the enemy at bay. Apparently, the cannons are working. An attacking gunship takes a hard hit and almost loses control. Summer keeps her air position in mind as several of the tanks point their long, slender, guns in her direction. Gladly, she's too far off for them to take down. She reminds herself that at the moment the troopers are her greatest threat. They still think she's one of the enemy.

'Okay, _now that I know where I am, _I n_eed to hurry up and land'_. One well-placed rocket can end it all. '_Not really in the mood for dying right now.' _A Republic LAAT with one wing hurtles overhead, listing to the side. Stepping on solid ground is starting to sound better than ever. Summer scans the ground for a safe place to set the ship down. She sees several possible areas but they look dicey at best. Too much fire.

Wait.

Her gaze is drawn to a clear lot of gravel practically overrun with grass. It is nestled between the primary communications building and a destroyed AA gun turret. A long stretch of debris littered, dirt lies behind the lot. A cluster of clone troopers meander around the 'Comms' building with their guns at their sides. That will do. Now she just has to _get_ there.

Summer turns the controls and brings the ship into a sloping arc. The damaged wing protests a little with a harsh shutter but complies. The gunship straightens and lines up for a clear landing. But then…

An alarm goes off. A single warning bell that only means one thing.

A curse escapes under Summers breath. She had been expecting this to happen but was hoping against all odds that it wouldn't. At least not now. Not when she was so close from getting out of this blasted cockpit…sitting next to two dead bodies. Not when she was so close to _landing._ She casts an obligatory glance at her radar. Sure enough, one of the Republic gunships has stalked up behind her. It slows for a moment.

Crouches.

Pounces. The gunship bursts forward and charges like an enraged predator. Two missiles detach themselves from the ship and streak ahead. Black spears of death baring down.

_'Don't panic. Just launch some flares and escape.'_ Summer frantically scans the controls. Chaff and flare. That's a lever right? Where the hell is the lever? Ree, ree, ree! The alarms are going crazy. Worse than when she first got hit. Wailing like their life depends on it. The missiles are closing in. No flares! Screw it. _I'll just have to fly my way out of this mess._ Summer jerks the controls to the side. Trying to whip the gunship around in a sharp turn for a fast escape. No such luck.

The back end of the ship explodes. Fiery heat engulfs Summer as the flames burst out from the explosion. The entire rear end of the fuselage is disintegrated, leaving only the cockpit, bits and pieces of the rear, and one wing. The ship groans through the air, trailing a black stream of smoke. Summer grapples helplessly against the controls. Suddenly the ship is spinning. Summer is jerked around in her seat. Falling to the left. Then to the right. Then upside down. Then back to the left. What remains of the engines are squealing high and loud. The ship skips through the sky, shaking itself apart. Still spinning, the ship blows by the already heavily damaged Communications building. Past plenty of burning structures. Over a line of tanks. Summer closes her eyes.

Spinning, spinning.

Falling, falling.

It all blurs together. Then it climaxes with one last hiccup from the engines and a bone jarring impact. The ship skims the side of a building and plows straight into the ground. The pilot cabin collapses. Metal closing in from all sides. Screeching hull. Shattering glass. Summer vaguely remembers slamming up against the window. It cracks but doesn't break. She almost blacks out. The darkness stalks up across the edges of her vision. _Don't lose consciousness. Don't lose it. Already passed out enough for one day. Please don't… _

Everything goes black.

But only for a moment. Barely a few seconds. When she opens her eyes again the room around her is all sparking wires and twisted metal. A brown fluid is dripping down from what used to be the floor. Summer is still strapped into an uprooted pilot's chair which is now pinning her down. The side of her face is pressed up against the forward viewport. The two former pilots are crushed.

Her blood is pumping hard with a rush of adrenaline. Summer methodically unstraps herself from the seat with bloody hands. Careful not to fall to the ground, she slides herself down to the ceiling…which is now the floor. Goes to the door. It is a crumpled mess. She kicks it in and steps outside. Smoke tinted sunlight blinds her. Air-raid sirens call from all sides. The burning gunship rises up behind her like a giant claw. Summer is partially aware of the clone troopers running towards her. She turns like a zombie and subconsciously begins moving in their direction.

"Holy…it's Commander K'Ull's apprentice, Alee!"

"Someone contact the Lieutenant!"

Summer finds herself dropping into a barely coherent haze. "Where is Elicity?" she asks. Hardly even hears herself. Apparently no one does. Two of the troopers reach her side. They wrap her arms around their shoulders and lift her up. Between them they carry Summer effortlessly.

"Don't worry Commander" one of them says. "We'll get you to safety." Between bloody strands of hair, Summer can see that she's being rushed towards a one-story, armored building. Two AA artillery cannons sit atop the roof, shooting up at the black phantoms swarming C-sect. Boom! Boom! The ground shutters with the cannons' recoil.

"Hang on" says the other soldier. Running. Blast doors pull open and swish shut. Summer is inside, surrounded by dim lights. Shadowy shapes shove past. She's brought through the room and to another set of blast doors. Down a turbo-lift. Through unrecognizable hallways then into a hospital-like chamber lit by off-white lights. A medical droid stands dormant in between a row of three cots. The two troopers set Summer down on one of them. Then just like that, turn to leave. As Summer lays down she mutters something about Elicity. A little bit louder than last time. One of the soldiers turns. Summer stares into the black reflection of his visor. He pauses a moment. She can sense his sudden uneasiness. _No. Oh no. NO! _The trooper stands still for a moment. He never replies. Rushes after his comrade. _Noo!_ The door closes behind him.

The spindly medical droid appears at Summer's side. Four insect like arms move towards her. Summer leans away from it while trying to sit up. Her effort is rewarded with a sudden blast of pain. It cuts down her side like a blade buried deep beneath her skin. Her shoulder and her neck go cold. Her leg is on fire. Head is pulsing. Vision blurs with each painful throb. Summer gasps and lays back down.

"Ma'am, your injuries are substantial." This is from the droid. There is a sharp pinch as a needle slips into Summer's arm. "This will help with the pain." The needle draws out. "It may take a while."

Summer groans. If there is anywhere she _does not_ want to be, it's in the confines of a medical bay. Elicity is dying. Dead. Hopefully neither. A breathing mask goes over her mouth. The droid straightens her left leg, sending out streaks of pain. It doesn't take an expert to know this is where Summer belongs. She feels horrible. Like a bloody, useless mess. Stupid for flying that ship down into the battle. If Elicity is really hurt they'll bring her down here with Summer. This is how Summer consoles herself. By telling herself she'll stay until she can make sure her master is okay. Then she will leave. Yes, that sounds like a good plan. Her pain begins to feel more distant. Reality blurs. _What did that droid put in that needle? _And for the second time, she goes under…

Life under the needle is strange. It's not a dream and it's not reality. It's an uncomfortable mix of both. From the vantage point of a medical cot, Summer sees scant pictures of reality strung together with periods of blacked out sub-awareness. Many times she catches glimpses of the medical droid bustling about its work. Other times she stares blankly at the plain ceiling. At one point she thinks she sees Captain Grey coming in. His armor is scathed and streaked with blood. Another clone trooper is close on his heels. For a while they stand by the cot, arguing back and forth. _"Look at her!" _the other clone says "_She's a mess! Who's our Commander now?" _ Then the two clones leave.

_Who is Commander now?_ The words float through Summer's thoughts. _Who is commander now? Master Elicity is Commander, that's who! _That is what she thinks but the truth of the matter begins to set in.

_ Elicity is gone._

_ No!_

_ Yes she is, just get over it._

_ She's not gone._

Fading, fading, fading…

_ She is dead._

Silence and then darkness.

Lights come back into focus. Slowly, steadily they come back. The stark white medical bay looks down at Summer. She sits up with a slight effort and a little pain. She feels better. Not best. Just better. She feels weird too. For some reason the lights look brighter. A little too bright. Everything is a little too detailed. Her vision a little too sharp. Her hearing is better than it has ever been before. Summer notices two additional needle marks on her arm and feels another one on her neck. That would explain things. The medical droid stands by eerily, quietly monitoring a screen. It's photoreceptors flicker towards Summer then back down to the screen. She can hear the fan inside the droid, cooling off its circuits.

A weak voice comes from one of the other beds. "Summer?" Summer looks over towards the other cots in the room. The two ones nearest hers are empty. The next one over though is occupied by a new patient. "Summer?" the voice calls again. Summer climbs out of her cot and stands. She feels light. With each step she feels like she's floating. Drifting towards the voice. And then she stops. In the medical bed is Elicity. Or is it Elicity? At first all she sees is a broken body lying in bloody sheets. But behind all the blood, she sees her trainer. Her friend. It's horrible to see her messed up this bad. Wasn't it only several hours ago that they were sitting in the forest. Together but alone in a world of peace and nature? Summer feels hot tears building up. Her little-to-sharp vision loses its clarity. Colors dull and sounds become muffled. Her head begins throbbing painfully. Elicity lets out a long breath. So, she's still surviving. That's good. She is awake and alive…barely. She looks up at Summer and manages to hold out a hand. Summer takes it. And then she cries.

And cries.

And cries.

She cries until her eyes feel swollen and sore. But she isn't the only one to shed tears. Elicity cries too, but not near as much. Instead she buries her own sadness and squeezes her padawan's hand in a comforting gesture. Elicity talks quietly to Summer, telling her that she's sorry and that she loves her. Then she finally tells her to be strong. "A time for more tears will come soon" she says in a quiet voice. "But until then, you _have_ to be strong." She reaches up and with shaking hands, wipes the tears from Summer's eyes. Summer nods. She closes her eyes to still the downpour. When she opens them, Elicity is watching her. "You _are _strong Summer. Remember that. Always remember."

Summer nods again. "I will." She says. "Always."

Elicity nods. And for a moment there is silence. The room shakes and the lights flicker, shooting distorted shadows across the room. Elicity seems to fade in and out of focus like a blurred lens. Summer closes her eyes again and holds Elicity's hand until the lights return. Time passes as she simply stands holding on to her trainer. Several times Elicity says something about a coming storm but Summer isn't really listening. She's too busy trying to freeze her final moments with Elicity in time while simultaneously holding back another wave of tears that threaten to burst from her eyes. It's not easy. The memory won't stay put. Several tears run down her cheeks.

"Tell me about the cave." Elicity says suddenly.

Summer looks up. "What…? The caves?" Her voice is still shaky.

"The cave that I told you about…" Elicity coughs violently until blood dribbles down her chin. She grimaces as she wipes it away. "…the one in the forest."

_Oh, that cave. Why am I being so stupid? Get it together Summer!_

"What did you see?"

"Well, I..." Summer suddenly seems to have trouble remembering what happened. It all seems like something centuries ago that was buried in time. Her mind is in a haze. She struggles to recall what happened. "Well, I saw…the water. And something talked to me—or not—I think." She opens her mouth to talk, pauses and gives up. "I don't know." She lowers her head.

"It's okay. Tell me this then. What do you know about your past?"

"My past?" _Of course my past! Who else's? What is wrong?! _"I don't know that either."

"I can understand." Elicity says. "Here, let me help." Their hands are still linked together. Elicity closes her eyes and goes still. Summer almost gives a start but catches herself. _She's still breathing. Not dead. Just…_

"Ouch!" A ripple of energy twists up Summer's arm. It feels electric and burns. She instinctively tries to move away but her hand is locked and won't let go. She turns to Elicity. The electricity doesn't seem to be bothering her. She is still lying motionless in her cot, with closed eyes. Another surge of energy rushes up Summer's arm. She cringes slightly. "What are you doing?" she asks. Another surge. Ouch.

Elicity tilts her head slightly to the side but says nothing. She has just motioned towards their interlocked hands…which are now glowing. The light pulses in time with Summer's headache. Soon the pain fades but the glow remains.

_Our minds are connected now. _Elicity's voice sounds like the end of a distant echo reverberating through Summer's thoughts. _Now, just think about what happened earlier today. Let your mind wonder back and I'll do the rest. Soon you will remember everything. And maybe even more. _

_ Okay. _Summer thinks back to the beginning of the day. It's harder than she expected. Her thoughts keep racing back to what's happening now. Her trainer is right next to her DYING. Trying to pick up a few memories about a cave doesn't seem like a priority. At least not now it doesn't.

_Don't worry about me. _Elicity communicates. _Just focus on what happened. Close your eyes this time. _Summer does as she is told. As her eyes close the glow of their hands brightens. The connection grows stronger. Summer concentrates. Broken snippets of her memory begin returning.

An image of a glimmering forest surrounded by black rock.

The sound of rushing waterfall.

The memories began coming faster. The few unconnected images begin to piece themselves together one thread at time until they begin to run together. Brief scenes unfold into a progressive story. The entire episode at the cave comes back stronger than ever. Summer relives her blind descent into the tunnel and then her trek into the forest. The "talking" water almost makes her smile. She sees the dream of the mother and daughter hiding in the house. The two staccato blaster shots that killed the mother make her shudder. When it all ends, Summer keeps her eyes closed.

_The girl. Was that me?_

_ Yes._

_ My mother was killed?_

_ Yes, I'm sorry Summer._

_ No, it's okay, I…don't remember her at all. It's like she never existed. She's only a dream. What bothers me is _why _I don't remember her. If I was five, then I arrived at the temple not even a year later. What else don't I know about myself?_

_ There's a lot you don't know. _

Summer opens her eyes and lets go of Elicity's hand. The light disappears and the connection dies. She looks at Elicity. "There a lot you know about me, but I don't? Then why didn't you ever tell me?"

Elicity looks defeated. "Back in the forest, I lied to you Summer. I didn't want to, but I felt like it was I all I could say. After I told you that the dreams meant nothing, I immediately regretted it. That's why I sent you to the cave. You would be able to find the answers you needed…more than I'd be able to tell you without taking the blame."

"The blame? You'd be blamed for telling me about my own childhood? Who would do that?"

"The Jedi Council."

Summer is shocked. She stutters over what to say next. "What?! Why would they?!"

"Because, even the Jedi have flaws. It's not a perfect Order, Summer. There are corrupt people on both sides of this war. No one should ever have their own life hidden from them. Especially someone with a background like yours." Elicity coughs. More blood. "Before I took you as my padawan, they told me everything." Elicity is looking through the ceiling and off into outer-space. She's slips into talking to herself. "They told me to never let the information get out and to keep her away from everything having to do with it. I should have known. We were trying to contain something that couldn't be stopped." Her eyes shift to Summer. "But you're unstoppable."

"What aren't you telling me?" Summer says a little louder than she needs to. "You're not making any sense, Elicity. All I know is that my mother was killed by soldiers and I was captured. Why wouldn't the Jedi want me to about that? It doesn't make any sense!"

Elicity sighs. Eyes closed again. She is visibly growing weaker. She seems to talking to herself again.

"Everything that's happening is because of him. We should have known he would _never_ keep his side of the agreement." Suddenly Elicity's expression hardens. Anger or desperation. Maybe a mixture of both. She looks at Summer. Fire burns in her eyes. "Listen closely Summer. You have to leave here. Go to Coruscant and talk to the Council. They will tell you what happened…but don't believe everything they say." She pauses and takes a sharp breath. "The Captain. Captain Grey, he'll be with you. I can see it in him. He would do anything to protect you. Will always have your back. Trust him and no one else."

"Elicity, stop! What are you talking about!"

"I know, I know! I'm not making sense now, but soon things will begin to come together." Beads of sweat are forming on Elicity's brow. Each breath is heavier than the last. She's struggling to stay alive. "Your mother. This attack. They are because of one man. And he won't stop until you're dead. He _will_ _kill_ you, but not unless you kill him first. Do it Summer. Promise me you will."

"Don't trust anyone? Kill who? Elicity! Stop! Please!" Summer is on the verge of crying again. What she's being told is coming in as an overload. Her trainer is slipping away. Farther and farther. Out of grasp.

"You wanted to know about your past, Summer. You have to destroy your father. It was your destiny and always will be." Elicity shudders. The urgency in her voice melts away into a quiet whisper. "I'm so sorry." Tears slip from beneath her eyes. "So, so, sorry." And then she is gone. Nothing. Elicity is dead. Everything begins to look blurry. Summer can't tell if she's just standing quietly in shock or screaming. Elicity starts to dissipate from in front of her. The body becomes haze of whirling energy. It builds up into a glowing sphere before firing up into the air. Summer falls backwards and scoots away from the raging column of lights.

"No." she murmurs. "No…"

The bright energy tears through the ceiling. When Summer looks up into the gaping hole it's like she's staring down from the sky. From her view she can see Almega burning under the pressing attackers. More gunships have arrived and now the base is crumbling in from all sides. _You have to leave here. _Four-Sect, Almega's external air base is being overrun with enemy soldiers. The surviving clone troopers are being gunned down. Slaughter. _He won't stop until you are dead. _The funnel of energy grows wider, blocking out Summer's view.

Light.

Dark shadows dance across the medical bay. One by one the lights burst.

Dark.

Growing and growing, the energy gives a final surge.

Light.

Then it peaks in a raging blast. Summer screams as she is swept into oblivion.

A place where darkness reigns.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Super thanks in advance for any reviews and helpful criticism! :D


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